A very good day for Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton. Photograph: RON SACHS / POOL/EPA

The day after clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton enjoyed a veritable torrent of high-level endorsements for her candidacy today. The deluge of endorsement statements from Democratic party officials and leaders was surpassed only by the flood of retweets she earned after coming for general election opponent Donald Trump.

President Barack Obama launched a coordinated push to unify Democrats after he formally endorsed Clinton after a meeting with her soon-to-be-former primary rival, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders.

“I’m with her,” Obama said. “I don’t think there has ever been someone so qualified to hold this office. She’s got the courage, the compassion, and the heart to get the job done … I have seen her judgment. I’ve seen her toughness. I’ve seen her commitment to our values up close, and I’ve seen her determination to give every American a fair shot at opportunity, no matter how tough the fight – that’s what’s always driven her, and still does.”

In addition to endorsements from Vice President Joe Biden and former primary rival Martin O’Malley, Clinton was also endorsed by Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren. Warren declared herself “ready” to ensure that Clinton defeats her presumptive Republican rival in November.

“I’m ready,” the Massachusetts senator told the Boston Globe. “I’m ready to jump in this fight and make sure that Hillary Clinton is the next president of the United States and be sure that Donald Trump gets nowhere near the White House.”

But most importantly, Clinton blew up Twitter today by dropping an eclipse’s worth of shade on Trump:

She has been especially fierce recently in her criticism of Donald Trump, attacking the presumptive Republican nominee in a searing series of speeches, setting herself up for a prominent and pugilistic role in the presidential election whether she is on the ticket or not.

Earlier on Thursday, at a speech to the American Constitution Society in Washington DC, Warren hit out at Trump as “just a businessman who inherited a fortune and kept it rolling along by cheating people”.

She described him as “a loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud who … serves no one but himself,” and said his attacks on Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge presiding over the Trump University suit, was “exactly what you would expect from somebody who is a thin-skinned racist bully”.

Elizabeth Warren: 'Yes, I do' think I'm ready to serve as vice president

Last question from Rachel Maddow:

“If you were asked to be Secretary Clinton’s running mate, do you believe you could do it?” Maddow asked, mentioning that former Pennsylvania governor and Clinton confidante Ed Rendell said that she is “not ready to be commander-in-chief.”

After her new segment was introduced by video of Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren calling Donald Trump a “wannabe tyrant,” Warren told Rachel Maddow that she sees the Democratic party’s contentious primary as healthy for the future of the party - and that’s why she held out from endorsing before it ended.

Elizabeth Warren. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

“I thought it was important for the primary to go forward and not to try to tilt it one way or the other,” Warren said. “I wanted to see Democrats out there talking about our core set of issues and let people around this country vote.”

“The point is to get us engaged and get us engaged on that set of issues,” Warren continued. “It’s not just that two people got up and talked about something, it’s that lots of people got up and got engaged about it. It wasn’t a small conversation - it’s a huge conversation. It’s a conversation all over this country.”

Warren also declared that, regardless of the nominee, “I’m gonna do everything I can to make sure that Donald Trump never gets within shouting distance of the White House.”

Asked about whether she had been asked about potentially serving as Clinton’s running mate, Warren was concise.

“Nope,” she told Maddow.

“I know there’s been a lot of speculation about this, but the truth is, I love the work I do,” Warren continued. “I can’t tell you how grateful I am to the people of Massachusetts who sent me in to wade into these fights. Now we’re about to wade into another big fight - a general election fight that pits a tough woman who’s willing to lead, against a small, insecure bully who thinks that he’s going to get his way by throwing tantrums and by giving people nasty nicknames.”

Over the last 25 years, Elizabeth Warren tells Rachel Maddow, “the right wing has thrown everything they possibly can” at Hillary Clinton, but that she is a strong enough nominee to persevere.

“She gets back in the fight,” Warren said. “You outta be willing to throw a punch. and there are a lot of things that people say about Hillary Clinton, but nobody says that she doesn’t know how to throw a punch.”

“I think that having a fighter in the lead - a female fighter in the lead - is exactly what this country needs.”

“I’m ready,” the Massachusetts senator told the Boston Globe. “I’m ready to jump in this fight and make sure that Hillary Clinton is the next president of the United States and be sure that Donald Trump gets nowhere near the White House.”

Behind perhaps President Barack Obama, who formally endorsed Clinton on Thursday afternoon, Warren’s call for the Democratic party to unify behind Clinton may be the most important endorsement the former secretary of state has received thus far. Warren, a burgeoning progressive icon in the senate, has pushed for the prosecution of bankers implicated in the Great Recession and strengthening protecting consumer financial protection laws, making her a hero to the kind of progressive voters who have flocked to Vermont senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.

Warren has also taken on the role of anti-Trump attack dog in the campaign, labelling Trump a “thin-skinned, racist bully” only an hour before her endorsement.

Vice President Joe Biden endorses Hillary Clinton

Vice president Joe Biden has officially endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination, roughly six hours after President Barack Obama endorsed the former secretary of state’s bid for the White House

Speaking at the American Constitution Society, Biden declared that with the supreme court hanging in the balance, the presidential election will be critical. And “whoever the next president is, and in my view, God willing, it’ll be Secretary Clinton.”